The Construction Of Chicana Identity From The Perspective Of Space Theory

Sandra Cisneros(1954-)is a famous Chicana writer,she has published three works in succession,i.e.The House on Mango Street(1984),Woman Hollering Creek and Other Stories(1991)and Caramelo(2002),due to the profound meanings of her work and her dual identity,these three works make her win lots of awards and then build her literary position in American mainstream society.What's more,her works also arouse people's attention on Chicana literature.This thesis mainly uses the theory of space as a research methodology to explore the construction of Chicana identity.It is divided into five parts.The introduction makes a brief introduction of Sandra Cisneros and her three fictions.Then it also reviews the research status and prospects of the subject at home and abroad.Finally,it summarizes the development of the space theory and discusses the research value and innovation of this thesis.Based on The House on Mango Street,the first chapter studies on the construction of Chicana female identity from the perspective of familial space.Chicanas as the main participants and activists in the familial space,they are trapped in this space by male dominant groups and suffer the discipline and punishment of body,which further leads to the lack of Chicana female identity.However,the play that the escape of the heroine Esperanza as the representative of Chicana is putting on,Esperanza constructs a representational space embodying a variety of possibilities with the dream house.And meanwhile,she does the spatial practice in the conceiving space she has constructed in order to resist and deconstruct the spatial representation of the male dominant groups,searching for Chicana identity.Finally,after a long explosive journey,she returns to the new familial space,that is the third space where reality and imagination coexist,thus completing the successful construction of Chicana female's identity.Based on Woman Hollering Creek and Other Stories,the second chapter probes into the construction of Chicana ethnic identity from the perspective of historical space.Sandra Cisneros' s unique Chicana ethnic identity enables her to perceive thehistory of the marginal Chicana groups and summon historical memories containing her subjective feelings and emotional experiences.At the same time,she also juxtaposes the literary imagination and historical memory and makes full use of the literary fictionality and imagination to construct a historical space,so this chapter tries to explore the losing,searching and acquiring process of Chicana ethnic identity from the perspective of historical space.Based on Caramelo,the third chapter analyzes the construction of Chicana hybrid identity from the perspective of cultural space.Sandra Cisneros takes the experience of the protagonist Lala as longitude lines and the one hundred years of historical experience of the Reyes family as the latitude lines,the longitude and latitude lines interwoven with each other to weave a beautiful “caramel rebozo” and also constructs a unique hybrid cultural space of Chicanas.This “hybridity” is represented by all kinds of aspects such as the living environment,language use,rebozo inheritance,life wisdom and identity transformation and so on.Through the deep understanding and acceptance of these cultural factors,Lala finally constructs her own hybrid identity.The last chapter is the conclusion of this thesis,which analyzes the shaping role of different spaces on Chicana identity,the Chicana identity Cisneros constructs in her works enriches the connotations of Chicana works and contributes to the prosperity of contemporary Chicana literature.